“My name is Lavanya and I am proud to say that I am a traditional handloom weaver. Earlier, I would only do the pre-loom preparation work that is separating the threads, making the yarn and graphing before the saree weaving. However, with time, I have mastered the skill of handloom weaving on the loom and today, I am equally good at it along with my husband.

What we do is pure skilled work. We don’t use any machinery to weave these Pochampally ikat sarees. The uniqueness of our sarees lies in the smoothness with which they can get the design onto the fabric. The weaving of a Pochampally ikat saree takes one family, at least 4-5 days to weave. Before that, we also work with the yarn, and colours to get the saree ready to be weaved.

We work hard for little money. Both my husband and I work 8-10 hours a day to earn Rs.17,000 – 18,000 per month. And now, because of the current pandemic situation, there’s hardly any demand in the market. Our generation could perhaps be the last in this field. Even though I wish my children could learn our family profession, I will leave it to their choice of what their careers could be in the future. However, they always sit with me whenever I weave at home and they keenly observe every detail of the artwork.

On the occasion of National Handloom Day today, I wish people came forward to support our weaver’s community by wearing handloom garments at least once a week.”